System and method for improving presentation skills

Abstract

A system and method for improving social and presentation skills of persons with a social communication disorder such as Autism. Social anxiety or a lack of confidence, the method including: rendering and displaying on a display device a presentation script for an oral presentation to be made by a user; monitoring eye movement of the user during the oral presentation to measure a user's pupil movement and / or a user's gaze direction; displaying an indicia on a separate display screen and / or an upper portion of the display device; periodically displaying within the presentation script a visual prompt to cue the user to look at the indicia; measuring eye movement using eye tracking software and / or an eye tracking device, at occurrence of the visual prompt; and evaluating whether the user made eye contact with the indicia when prompted.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 833,303 filed on Jun. 10, 2013, which is incorporated by reference as if set forth herein in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]A system and method provides improved human presentation skills and, more particularly, increases eye contact, speech fluency, presentation skills, and vocabulary of persons with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Individuals, especially young adults and older teens afflicted with ASD, often have problems communicating with other individuals, especially with audiences or groups of people. For many individuals with ASD, the consequences of the disorder may manifest as, inter alia, difficulties in making eye-to-eye contact, in presenting ideas fluently, and in socializing and engaging with others. The short- and long-term effect of these social skills deficits may hinder the individual's relationship d...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0005]Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system and method for improving presentation skills, especially skills of individuals with social skill and communication disorders such as Autism. More specifically, it is desirable to provide a system and method for improving presentation skills by targeting more than one aspect of making a presentation, i.e., delivering a speech to an audience, with particular focus on improving eye contact skills, especially among higher functioning individuals who recognize their own social anxiety and desire self-improvement in that area. Moreover, it is desirable to provide a user-friendly system and method that enables higher-functioning individuals with ASD to overcome the anxiety of making eye contact with an audience of one or multiple individuals by practicing the presentation, e.g., speech, using visual prompts in the text of the script of the presentation.

[0007]In a first aspect of a method for improving social and presentation skills of persons with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, each of the persons has a client device that includes a processing device, memory, a user interface, and a display device. In some embodiments, the method includes rendering and displaying on the display device a presentation script for an oral presentation to be made by a user; monitoring eye movement of the user during the oral presentation to measure at least one of a user's pupil movement and a user's gaze direction; displaying, e.g., on a separate display screen and / or an upper portion of the display device, an indicia, e.g., an image of an eye and / or a pair of eyes, which may periodically change; periodically displaying within the presentation script a visual prompt to cue the user to look at the indicia; measuring eye movement, e.g., using eye tracking software and / or an eye tracking device, at occurrence of the visual prompt; and evaluating whether the user made eye contact with the indicia when prompted. In variations of the embodiment, the method may further include enabling the user to set a timing of the oral presentation and / or enabling the user to record images, e.g., video images, of the user practicing the oral presentation.

[0009]In a second aspect, the present invention relates to an apparatus for improving social and presentation skills of users. In some embodiments, the apparatus may include memory for storing computer readable instructions, which, when executed by a processor, create an instance of an application operating on a mobile device; a user interface; a display device; an eye tracking device; and a processing device for executing some of the stored computer readable instructions. In some variations of the embodiment, executing may include rendering and displaying on the display device a presentation script for an oral presentation to be made by a user; monitoring eye movement of the user during the oral presentation, using the eye tracking device, to measure a user's pupil movement and / or a user's gaze direction; displaying on an upper portion of the display device an indicia, e.g., an eye and / or a pair of eyes, which can be changed periodically; periodically displaying within the presentation script a visual prompt to cue the user to look at the indicia; measuring eye movement, using the eye tracking device, at occurrence of the visual prompt; and evaluating whether the user made eye contact with the indicia when prompted. In variations, executing may further include enabling the user to set a timing of the oral presentation and / or enabling the user to record images, e.g., video images, of the user practicing the oral presentation.

Problems solved by technology

Individuals, especially young adults and older teens afflicted with ASD, often have problems communicating with other individuals, especially with audiences or groups of people.

For many individuals with ASD, the consequences of the disorder may manifest as, inter alia, difficulties in making eye-to-eye contact, in presenting ideas fluently, and in socializing and engaging with others.

The short- and long-term effect of these social skills deficits may hinder the individual's relationship development, academic success, and professional advancement.

One problem with these apps is that, although individuals with ASD can generally use technology well, they often have difficulty applying lessons learned from the app to real-life situations.

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